Campaign Story

Hi, My name is Ashley and for as long as I can remember, I have dreamed of being a mother. I married my high school sweetheart in 2005 and little did we know there would be so many struggles ahead. At the age of 19 a large mass was found in my abdomen and 2 months later at the age of 20, I lost my left ovary to a 12lb tumor (ovarian cancer). After no re-occurrences, my doctors didn’t see any alarm and figured it was a fluke situation. However, I was living with un-diagnosed Poly Cystic Ovarian Sydrome (PCOS). This is an endocrine disorder that causes a lot of issues and for me, it’s one of the reasons I have Diabetes/Insulin resistance and I do not ovulate on my own. We started trying to grow our little family in 2008. I have always suffered from an irregular cycle and I was diagnosed officially with PCOS around 2010 after 2 years of no luck. however, there was a great lack of education and information provided, so as we were tying to start a family, I felt like I was going in Blind. By 2015, my cycles were non-existent and I ended up getting Diagnosed with Endometrial Cancer. Through a miracle, my oncologist helped me work toward fighting the cancer and preserve my uterus and remaining ovary in the process. I have fought this same cancer 3 times and am now in remission and have been for over a year (my longest remission period). During my 2nd remission period, we tried oral fertility med for 7 rounds, but it did not take. I have worked on getting my health in better order and now my Reproductive Endocrinologist is now ready to get a little more aggressive. We are looking to start daily injections in April and if that does not work then we look in IVF. This is a costly process and may not work the 1st round as my body adjusts to coming off of hormones that have been preserving and maintaining things until we were ready to try again. My husband and I pride ourselves on working hard for what we have, but the price of injections are around $2400 per round plus the cost of any additional procedures such as IUI could put us at over $3000 just for 1 attempt. This is outside of our budget, but we will do what we have to in order to at least try for our miracle. All we want is to be able to have the opportunity to have a child of our own. We have prayed for this for over 13 years and know that God has heard every one of them! We appreciate anything that you can do to help. Thank you and God Bless each of you.